Chapter 26
Game Over
Tara
Eli did drive faster, skirting the speed limit until we were flying over the bridge that separated Port O’Henry from the rest of the gulf coast.
Streams of cool, salty air slipped in through the cracked windows, dulling the bitter scent of blood. I sucked in lungfuls, willing the cold to slow my heart rate. To freeze the adrenaline coursing painfully through my body, making me shake.
My palm pressed softly against Isaac’s chest, the weak thump of his heart the only reassurance that he was alive. He was so still that I almost couldn’t see him breathing.
Saul was a statue in the seat beside me, his features etched from stone.
The truck bumped off the main road, jolting and bouncing across potholes and uneven gravel, and it was there. A shift in the air. Salt giving way to something sweeter—older.
When Isaac brought me here earlier, it was foreign. A world that wasn’t meant for me.
I had changed since then. My insides transformed and twisted the way Isaac and his brothers transformed on the outside. Remade into something new, something darker and harder.
I watched Saul leap from the truck, coming around to our side and heaving a limp Isaac in his arms. I watched Isaac’s head flop to the side, his eyes closed in a way that made him look lifeless.
Cady and Eli hurried after Saul, climbing the stairs to Eli’s house and throwing open the door.
I let one swift moment pass. Sitting alone in the back of the truck, Isaac’s blood drying on my arm. Breathing.
Then I took the stairs two at a time, determined to throw myself into the chaos. To do something—anything—to make Isaac live.
I was breathing because of him. Because he stood like a wall between me and danger. Now it was my turn. To stand between him and death. To make him hold on a little longer.
Saul and Eli were snapping at each other when I stepped into the living room. Cady was rummaging through a depleted first aid kit, tossing fistfuls of gauze at Isaac.
“Why isn’t it closing?” Saul growled, pulling a tourniquet tight over Isaac’s left thigh. “This shouldn’t still be bleeding.”
Eli swiped an alcohol wipe over Isaac’s stomach, clearing away a layer of grime and revealing the dark bruising that was blooming beneath his skin.
“He’s bleeding internally,” I told Saul as calmly as I could. “There’s more damage than you can see.”
I knelt beside the couch where Isaac was sprawled out, trying to block out the rhythmic drip of his blood hitting the leather. My palm grazed over his stomach, studying the pattern of purple, and he made a noise for the first time since we put him in the car.
Saul glanced between us, glaring at our interlocked hands. He sighed, closing his eyes for a second too long before that silver gaze blazed brighter, locked directly on me.
“I’m real sorry about this, miss Tara, but I have to keep my promises.”
I scowled, not understanding the apology or why he suddenly appeared to be sizing me up.
“Cady, go sit in the truck,” Eli ordered.
“What—"
“Now!”
Cady jumped, scurrying to the door with wide eyes. Eli bristled beside his brother, hands stilling on a piece of gauze that was halfway wrapped around Isaac’s bicep.
“I hope you know what you’re doing,” he said quietly.
“I don’t.”
Then Saul stood, towering over me with eyes like twin moons. They glowed menacingly, almost as threatening as the growl building in his throat.
“My brother is going to die, which means you have no reason to stay here. To keep our secret.”
“He’s not going to—"
Saul cut me off, the growl building until it was like thunder rolling through the house. Eli stood too, backing away slowly, his eyes like copper coins.
“I can’t let you leave this bayou alive.”
Isaac’s eyes snapped open, equal parts green and gold as they shone brightly across my face. He jolted upright, his body swelling and growing so rapidly it knocked me back into the coffee table.
I jumped to my feet, backpedaling fast as eight feet of furious werewolf rose from the couch, muscles bunched before his attack.
Except—Saul and Eli were gone. The front door slammed, drawing Isaac’s wrathful snarl for only a moment before his lips fell over his sharp, sharp teeth and he whipped his head in my direction.
Be brave, I told myself. This is the same Isaac that protected you.
This is the same Isaac.
He didn’t look the same. The living room felt cramped and enclosed, trapping me with a bleeding beast that was very, very unhappy.
I forced myself to freeze. To keep my feet planted. My heel wobbled, bumping me back half a step, and Isaac lurched forward, as if he was seconds away from pouncing on me.
What would he do if I ran?
My eyes moved slowly upward, from the gashes across his belly to his neck, and then higher, to meet his gaze. The swirls of gold in his irises were brighter, but they were the same.
The same eyes.
The same soul.
This was Isaac.
He was waiting for you.
This was the version of Isaac that knew who I was from the start.
“Isaac?” I took a tentative step forward.
He went so unnaturally still that I wasn’t sure he was even breathing.
“Are you in there?” Another step. Then two.
Finally, I was so close I had to tilt my head to look up at him. Hot breath gusted my hair. I lifted a trembling hand to the side of his face, fingers sinking into soft, dark fur.
Isaac—the beast—shuddered, his eyes falling closed.
“You’re not a monster,” I whispered.
He made a pained noise.
“I know who you are. I know what matters to you, Isaac.”
A huff of air tickled my face.
“You’re not a monster.”
A shudder moved through him again, more violent this time. My lips parted, a gasp escaping as he shifted and the wounds across his body sealed shut. The bruises remained, the cuts angry lines of red, but they were nothing like they had been minutes before.
“How is that possible?” I ran my finger over his bare stomach, feeling smooth skin.
Isaac winced. “It’s not as healed as it looks.”
I jerked my hand back, an apology on my lips. Isaac smothered it, mouth colliding with mine. Copper and warmth danced across my tongue. It was like I could taste the darkness of him—how it mingled with the light.
He was both at once. Two souls with one heart.
My pulse stuttered and I clutched my chest. For one breathless moment my own heart stopped beating.
Then it picked up again, frantic and urgent, and there was only one thing on this earth that I needed in that moment.
Thick arms curled around me, and even as I continued drinking from his lips, drawing him closer and closer, I sobbed.
“It’s okay. It’s okay,” Isaac chanted, breaking our kiss and pressing his mouth to my forehead. “Everything is okay now.”
“It’s not okay,” I cried, hovering my hands over his mottled sides. “How can it be okay?”
A fever was rising to the surface of my skin. My legs trembled. I ached everywhere—throbbing with pain and need all at once. Without meaning to, I clutched the tattered waist of his jeans, pulling him too hard against me and nipping at his lip.
“W-what—what’s happening right now?”
Isaac’s eyes flashed that too bright color. “I think it’s the bond.”
“You think?” I forced my hands to unclench, backing away from him until I stumbled into a coffee table and plopped onto it. “You were going to die like five minutes ago. I should be putting you to bed or dressing your wounds—or something!”
That damned dimple popped in his cheek. “You want to play doctor?”
“Yes—I mean no! Look at you!”
“Do I look that good?”
My lips twitched. “I feel like you’re too far away. It’s actually making me anxious.”
Isaac took my hand, expression softening. He settled onto the couch across from me. The pained lines around his mouth sobered me instantly.
“I’m sorry, Tara. For all of it. I should have protected you—"
“You did protect me. You saved my life. You almost died protecting me.”
“You never should have been there. We never should have left the bayou—hell, you never should have let me near you.”
Another anxious jolt in my chest. “I don’t think I could have told you no.”
“You can always tell me no,” he said seriously. “What you saw tonight—saw with Jacques—that’s not me. That will never be me.”
“I know.”
“I’ve worked hard to be different.”
“I know.”
Our eyes locked. Heat coiled between us. Tension. I had this terrible feeling that there was something unfinished, and the longer it went undone, the more heat would build inside me until I was combustible. Burning.
“Is this what it will always be like?”
He snorted. “Hopefully not.”
“Us. I mean us. Will we—will you—you’ll want me like you do now?”
Isaac smoothed his free hand over his chest, and I saw the future in his eyes. Saw him shift through his entire life in a heartbeat.
“Yes. Always.” He swallowed. “I’ll always look for you—and I’ll always find you.”
“I’m going to stay,” I blurted, standing abruptly and pacing away from him to keep myself from reaching for him again. “I want to stay.”
“Then stop running from me.”
“I have to. I need to get some air or something because—"
“Tara,” Isaac said darkly, rising from the couch with control, “don’t run from me.”
I smiled.
This time, I didn’t listen.
I ran, racing through the living room and down the dark hallway. I was aiming for the guest room, but I forgot which end of the hall it was, and when I flung open the nearest door, it was to find myself standing in a large bathroom.
“Shit,” I hissed, whirling to find Isaac directly behind me.
I made it into the shower, heaving the glass door between us. He caught it easily, one strong hand holding it open as he caged me in. My back hit the shower wall. My chest brushed Isaac’s bare chest with every breath.
He kissed me like he couldn’t get close enough. Kissed me until I couldn’t feel the cold under my feet. Water sprayed down on us suddenly, and we still didn’t stop.
Wet clothes peeled from my body. Every ache and bruise was exposed, and Isaac touched each of them, cataloguing them. Soothing them.
My fingertips did the same to his, tracing the purple outlines that cut across his abdomen. I dropped to my knees, lips following the same path.
“No.” Isaac lifted me, curling my legs around his hips. “I need to feel you in my arms.”
I wrapped my arms around his neck, drawing him to me. “I’m here.”
He inhaled, eyes falling shut. “You’re here.”
Then he was inside me, and all the tumultuous waves calmed. For a brief moment, there was nothing but him. Us. The bond pulsing between us like a tangible thread. A chain, locking our hearts together.
I didn’t feel shackled, though. I felt lighter. Whole.
In that tiny moment, it all made sense. Everything that led me here had a purpose. Had meaning.
Isaac moved, shifting his hips. My forehead fell to his, breath coming in uneven pants.
Fresh waves started to crash against me, but this time, they were all pleasure. Ecstasy building and building. It was too much. Too much sensation.
Until I came tumbling over that edge with a cry, Isaac following me—always following.
All at once, the world came rushing back. Cold water pelted me, and I gasped. Isaac reached for the handle, cranking it the opposite direction. He set me on the shower floor with a groan of pain and I cursed when the temperature of the water went from frigid to scalding.
He twisted, shielding me from the water as he found the perfect middle. I looked up at him, soaking wet, tattered jeans at his ankles, bruises all over his face, and I laughed.
He laughed too, lips curling into that dazzling smile, and even though it wasn’t okay now, I knew it would be.
Whatever happened before, it brought me here.
Exactly where I was meant to be.